xxi] BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 825

call it a local army, or whether you bring the management 1860.
face to face in London, the fact is still the same. The ir. 56.
English people in Parliament have undertaken to be re-Sponsible
 for governing one hundred and fifty millions of
People, despotically, in India. They have adopted the
Principle of a military despotism, and I have no faith in
Such an undertaking being anything but a calamity and a
tute to the people of England. Ultimately, of course,
Rature will assert the supremacy of her laws, and the white
Sking will withdraw to their own latitudes, leaving the
Hindoos to the enjoyment of the climate to which their
Complexion is suited. In the meantime we shall suffer all
kindy of trouble, loss, and disgrace. Every year will witness
®n increased drain of men and money to meet the loss
®dtailed on us. In the meantime, too, an artificial expar-Sion
 of our exports growing out of government expenditure
in India, will delude us as to the value of our ¢ possessions’
W the East, and the pride of territorial greatness will
Prevent our loosening our hold upon them. Is it not just
Possible that we may become corrupted at home by the re-8ction
 of arbitrary political maxims in the Bast upon our
domestic politics, just as Greece and Rome were demoralized
by their contact with Asia? But I am wandering into the
Tegions of the remote future. It is, however, from an
abiding conviction in my mind that we have entered upon
81 impossible and hopeless career in India, that I can never
bring my mind to take an interest in the details of its
Bovernment.”’

(12.) To Henry Ashworth.
The War in China.
“ Paris, August 27,1860.—% * * * I have been watching
With interest the course of events in China, where it seems
¥e are performing the double and rather inconsistent task